


The Fun of the Fair

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, F/M, Funfair, Little Bae, non-magic au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-16 00:10:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13624410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Little Bae Gold has something very important to ask his absolute favourite person in the world - librarian Belle French. He might have to get his Papa to help him. What follows is a fun day out for all involved.Backfilling old Monthly Rumbelling prompts from 2016 that I missed before joining the event. This fills the non-smut prompt for May: Be My Guest.





	The Fun of the Fair

 

“Go on, Bae. It’ll be all right.”

“But Papa!”

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Bae. Miss Belle isn’t scary, you can ask her.”

There was silence for a while, either that or Bae was speaking too quietly for her to overhear. Unseen behind the stacks, Belle smiled to herself as she re-shelved a stack of recently returned books about architecture. Miss Blanchard’s class at the elementary school were doing a project about castles, and between them they’d managed to clear out the library of every single book on castles and other large and impressive buildings. She wondered what it was that Bae wanted to ask her, and why he was so shy about doing so. Bae Gold was an intelligent and inquisitive child, and it seemed that there was nothing he liked more than exploring the children’s library and talking to her about his favourite books. He was a regular fixture at their weekend story times, and Belle always looked forward to seeing him.

There was, of course, another reason why Belle looked forward to seeing Bae. Wherever Bae went, his father would not be far behind, and whilst Belle had a definite soft spot for Bae, she was also nursing another one for Mr Gold. He had a reputation in the town for being a hard-nosed businessman without a softer side and no concept of leniency, but Belle really didn’t know how such a reputation could perpetuate when he was rarely seen without his son bouncing happily along beside him without a care in the world. It was clear that Mr Gold adored his little boy, and that Bae was a very happy child.

“Will you come with me?” Bae asked.

“Of course. We’ll go and ask her together.”

A small tousled head appeared around the end of the stack, followed by the rest of Bae’s body, and then by his father, to whose hand he was clinging tightly. Belle pretended to be surprised to see them, trying not to betray the fact she’d been accidentally eavesdropping on their conversation for the past few minutes.

“Oh, hello there Bae. You’re here late. I would have thought you’d gone home by now. What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to ask you something, Miss Belle.”

“And what’s that, Bae?” She crouched down so that she was on his level, and Bae looked up at his father again for reassurance. Mr Gold nodded encouragingly, and Bae let go of his hand to come over to Belle, handing her a pamphlet. Belle recognised the advertisement well enough, it had come from the pile of flyers sitting on the issue desk. The vintage steam fair was coming to town tomorrow, and like all of the rest of Storybrooke’s residents, Belle was very much looking forward to it.

“Miss Belle, would you like to come to the fair with me and Papa tomorrow?” Bae asked. “Papa knows one of the people who works on the rides and he’s going to show us how they work and get us free toffee apples. You can be our guest if you want.”

Belle smiled. “That sounds wonderful, Bae. I would love to come to the fair with you, if your Papa says it’s all right.”

She glanced up at Mr Gold, who was nodding, a smile on his face that was almost as wide a grin as Bae’s.

“Great! We’ll see you tomorrow then. Thank you Miss Belle! We’re going to have a great time.”

He made to run off then, but realised that his father wasn’t following him and waited patiently at the end of the stack as Belle straightened up and met Mr Gold’s eyes.

“Thank you,” he said. “I told Bae that he could bring a guest when we go to meet Jefferson and get a backstage tour of the rides. I did think that he’d ask someone his own age, but all the same, I’m very glad that you’re the one he chose.”

Belle could feel herself blushing. “I’m very glad that he chose me too.”

There was something unspoken hanging in the air between them. Belle had felt it there before, when she had been sitting in the children’s library with him, watching him help Bae to pick out new books to discover. The genuine enthusiasm that he showed for every aspect of his son’s life was always heartwarming to behold, but there was something else, something that she couldn’t quite define. It was as if there was more to be discussed, feelings that Bae was not quite old enough to fully understand yet, but could pick up on nonetheless. He was watching them from the end of the row now, a knowing expression on his face. Belle bit her bottom lip. It was ridiculous to assume that Bae had planned this to allow her and his father to spend more time together. He was only five, for heaven’s sake, he was far too young to be playing matchmaker. All the same, whether intentional or not, he was definitely doing a very good job of it.

“I guess we’ll see you tomorrow then,” Gold said. “The fair opens at ten, shall we meet you at the entrance?”

“Sounds good to me.” Belle looked past him to Bae and winked. “I’m looking forward to the free toffee apples.”

Bae gave another grin and ran off towards the library exit, and this time his father had to jog to catch up with him. Belle watched them leave and then went back to restocking her shelves. She couldn’t stop smiling until it was time to close up the library. It wasn’t really a date as such. Neither of them had said so in as many words. But the feeling was there. That same anticipation that she had felt before all of her romantic first dates before. Maybe during the course of the day she and Mr Gold could work things out, and try and give some kind of definition to their tentative friendship. With Bae around all the time it might not be the easiest of conversations to have, but Belle wouldn’t have it any other way. Bae was one of her favourite people, just as Mr Gold was.

She shook her head crossly. She couldn’t really call this a date when she didn’t even know the man’s first name. That was a lie. She did know his first name, in as much as the library computer knew his first name from his library card. She could very easily look it up. She glanced from the library door to the computer on the issue desk and back again, before creeping over to the computer in a furtive manner that was wholly unnecessary considering that she was alone in the building. A few clicks of the mouse later and it was there in front of her. Cameron. His name was Cameron Gold.

Belle smiled as she shut the computer down. She was very much looking forward to the fair.

X

There really couldn’t have been a better day for the fair. The sun was shining brightly overhead in a blue sky, with enough cool breeze to stop the fairground sweltering with the heat of the steam engines. Crunching on a toffee apple as she meandered through the stalls and rides with Gold, Belle wondered how she had managed to end up so blessed. Bae was running on ahead of them, desperate to get to the next attraction but always running back to them, impatient that they were taking so long. Gold’s friend Jefferson had given them a fascinating explanation of how the steam appliances worked, and whilst Belle was sure that a lot of the technicalities had gone over Bae’s head, he was so excited about being allowed ‘behind the scenes’ as it were, that it really didn’t matter. He was hyped up on sugar and life itself at the moment, and she wondered if Gold would have any trouble getting him off to sleep tonight. Perhaps by then he would have tired himself out.

It painted such an idyllic picture, and for a moment, Belle was saddened that she could not be a part of it. Their relationship was still nebulous and undefined, and she really wanted to know where she stood. She hung back as Gold paid for Bae to have a ride on the merry-go-round, waiting until he’d watched Bae clamber confidently onto the back of a brightly painted horse, before she chanced to speak to him.

“Mr Gold… May I call you Cameron please? I mean, I like to think that we know each other well enough to be on first name terms, and you’re quite welcome to call me Belle.”

Gold smiled. “Be my guest.”

Being granted permission to use his first name felt like a definitive step in the right direction.

“Thank you for bringing me,” she said, unsure of where to go from there. “I’ve had a truly wonderful day.”

“It’s been my pleasure, Belle.”

“I was wondering, if you’re amenable, would you like to do it again some time? I don’t mean the fair per se, but… us. Spending time together. With or without Bae, I mean, he’s a wonderful little boy and a delight to be around…”

Belle trailed off; her tongue was getting away from her in her nervousness and the last thing that she wanted to do was to make a fool of herself in front of the man she had more than a little bit of a crush on. Gold, for his part, just reached out one hand from where he was resting them both on the top of his cane. Belle took it, and he squeezed her fingers tightly.

“I’d like to do this again too,” he said. “Perhaps Wednesday? Bae has a playdate with Lily Mallory, we could get an early dinner at Granny’s.”

Belle couldn’t hide her smile or enthusiasm at his proposition. It was a date, a proper date, and one that might never have come about had it not been for Bae inviting her to the fair.

“That sounds perfect.”


End file.
